MoM Sales Numbers, Success, and Indie MMO Technology

MoM Sales Numbers, Success, and Indie MMO Technology

Eleven months ago, Prairie Games launched Minions of Mirth. We now have some hard data to share. We're happy to report these numbers:

Windows and OSX sales to date: $80,000

Registrations to date: 30,000 (This number is significant because it means someone cared enough to download, install, and register from inside the game. This also puts them on our mailing list, see below)

These numbers are direct sales without the use of any online game portals. They also represent a company of 2 people who have done zero marketing. The game's sales are strong 11 months after launch. We're now planning to a) dress the game up a bit and b) do an actual marketing push. In fact, I am quite sure the sales will increase over the next year. Minions of Mirth will definitely have a long, long life. By my standards, this is a success.

I think it's important to identify some of the things that have made the game and technology successful:

1. Torque Game Engine (w/ Python Support) - We started MoM over, from scratch, in January and launched in December. That's a period of 11 months and includes development and testing. This was possible greatly in part to using the proven technology and art pipeline of the Torque Game Engine. TGE is especially productive when combined with the high level language, Python.

2. Rock solid MMORPG technology - The MMORPG technology works great. It's live and bullet tested . The servers have 99%+ uptime. There is nothing in the "this game is totally broken and sucks" department. This reduces frustration, increases fun, and makes people feel like buying your game.

3. Indie friendly technology - Prairie Games currently has 2 staff members. I administer all of the servers, by myself. Lara handles processing the orders and all other business stuff using the back office system I came up with... it's slick and allows our tiny company to create and support a huge product.

4. The GarageGames Community - This community and website are a tremendous resource. Through it, we were able to find incredible talent like Magnus Blikstad and Christophe Canon. The community also provides a great deal of inspiration and a place to show your progress. Great job GarageGames!

5. The game itself and its community - Minions of Mirth is a huge game with loads of stuff to do in it. We have also generated an absolute ton of content. I have spent considerable time playing the game and have fun with it myself. We also have an awesome and growing community which now helps with new content and even does some programming for the game!

6. Content Packs - Thanks to all content pack creators! They rock and are a big part in the indie game development revolution! A game of MoM's scope wouldn't have been possible for us without licensed content...

7. Easy and meaningful upgrade to the Premium Edition - We have a great system for upgrading from a free account to a premium account. It boils down to an extremely small auto-patch and you're ready to go. There are many in-game incentives for upgrading like premium items you can only equip with a premium account, increased leveling, additional races and classes, etc... It also helps that other people are chatting in the chat system and encouraging others to buy it! The game has a very live feeling... which is very much a benefit of MMO!

8. Easy and frequent autopatching - We have patched the game with new content and major feature enhancements over the last year. This includes things like Guilds, Friends Lists, etc. Patches give us increased visibility on game sites and satisfied customers (which tell their friends). The game is capable of patching itself and the patching system leverages Subversion as a backend... which was a good idea and works great!

9. Mailing list generation - We automatically generate a mailing to 30,000 (and growing) registered players. This includes patch notes, major feature upgrades, and other news items to keep on people's radar. This is tremendously important and really helps drive sales...

10. OSX Support - I'll admit at times OSX support from a development standpoint has been a nightmare. The platform has had real tremors lately with Panther and Tiger incompatibilities, switching to Intel processors, etc... now that we have a decent installer and Universal Binary support on OSX it's much smoother sailing. The performance of the game is pretty good on my Mac Mini, which is also nice... (it blew on G4/G5 processors).

11. Single Player support - The technology supports playing the game in single player mode. This greatly helps people feel secure in buying the game. It is reassuring to know that if the servers ever go down, they can still play their game. An important part of the single player support, is that it's very easy to edit the game's zone and other content via leveraging the embedded world server. There are not multiple servers to start up and tear down everytime you want to do a simple test!

12. Test Server and Clients - We're able to run a separate Test Server with associated testing clients on Windows and OSX. This allows us to try out radical changes to the game and get this debugged before going to the live servers. Check out the latest MoM Test Server patch notes below...

Whew! There's quite a bit more to say, though due to NDA's and other factors, this will have to be continued...

Stay tuned,
-Josh Ritter
President
Prairie Games, Inc


The MoM Community Development Group Proudly Presents:

Test Server Patch 11-7-06


The MoM Community Development Group is: Rodney 'OldRod' Burns, Jonathon Bustard, Citrine, cresswga, Dacca, Elexadora, Ganghiss, Stefan 'Llarlen' Walter

Patch Notes

+ Added Bard Epic: Part 1 (FoL and Monster paths), new items, and new spawns. Thanks to Ganghiss.

+ Added Cooking/Brewing skills. Talk to Barkeeper Meeri (FoL), Barkeeper Nayshar (MoD), or Tachch (Monster) to begin. Added food vendors throughout the land. Thanks to Citrine.

+ Added Twillo the Undead Master quest to Old Man Tim (monster path) and Twillo (MoD path). Thanks to Citrine and Ganghiss.

+ Added new amphibian monster model to the Swamp of Ruin, thanks to Magnus Blikstad of WIT Entertainment.

+ Added several new texture sets, thanks to Christophe Canon. (Blightborn Hide, Earthbound, Dark Elf, and Warling)

+ Added over 30 new rare weapons and items, most of the weapons also have procs! (Burntbone Claymore, Charlatan's Blade, The Bloodletter, Twisted Bone Staff, Bisotaurian Battleaxe, Frostbite Lance, Jewel of Dhruin, Bracers of Hate, etc.)

+ Added hundreds of new leveled armor pieces and sets with bonuses! (Badger, Eagle, Tiger, Whale, Dolphin, Monkey, Elephant, Albatross, Crane, Gazelle, Bear, Fox, Bison, and Scorpion)

+ Added Cooma Blue (NPC), camp, and Sleep Alchemy recipe dialog to Desert of Mohrum.

+ Client and server optimizations. Thanks to Llarlen.

+ Added level 25 quest to Nothene Cre in Jakreth Jungle (all realms).

+ Added level 45 quest to Inaer the Betrayer in Desert of Mohrum (all realms).

+ Added level 60 quest to Nadya Soulet in Frostbite Islands (all realms).

+ Added level 80 quest to Lord Tanorus in Desert of Mohrum (FoL and MoD).

+ Added level 95 quest to Fendri An in Anidaen Forest (FoL and MoD).

+ Added several new factions: House Greystone, House Taskmore, House Saurilacer, The Inaer Clan, The Orkuhn Clan. Updated several existing spawns to reflect the new factions.

+ Added 1H impact weapons (Skullbasher's Skull Basher and Charnel Hammer).

+ Added new poisons to reach max poison level (Flames of Salubrity and Ruby Fever). Thanks to Citrine.

+ Added new alchemy recipes for poisons. Thanks to Citrine.

+ Added Assassin class shields.

+ Added new item icons, thanks to Ashley.

+ Added new underground cavern to the Swamp of Ruin.

+ Added journal entry for Erar Tonsaya's wolf hide request.

+ Added a message output to coin pickpocketing.

+ Added Bard class to several existing spawns.

+ Added buff window icon to several duration spells that were missing one.

+ Added Demon Fang and Demon Wing to Azath's loot.

+ Added end message to Druid's DOT spells.

+ Added exclusions to Revealer Illusion spells.

+ Added Golem Life Essence drop to Ushmush.

+ Added new drop (Fiery Guts) off mobs in Burning Fields.

+ Added new Warling and Earthbound armor sets with bonuses for wearing the whole set.

+ Added Platinum Ore drop to Platinum Golem.

+ Added possibility to steal a mobs weapon when attempting a disarm and having knowledge of the 'Pick Pocket' skill, based on both skills values.

+ Added Potion of Planar Recall as an alchemy potion and a Scroll of Planar Recall. This returns players to their bindpoint.

+ Added potion of Swamp Gate to Swamp of Ruin.

+ Added Scribing and Research to crafting skills.

+ Added Scroll of Ghastly Ghoul to Warlord loot.

+ Added Scroll of Shadow of the Spectre to Lord Uruk Saleuth loot.

+ Added skill pages to encyclopedia.

+ Added visibility checks to some interface components, greatly improves responsiveness.

+ Adjusted Dragon Arrow range and proc to be equal to Blightborn Bone Bow.

+ Adjusted message indexes for NPC and Pet speech.

+ Adjusted skill levels of some monstrous armor to match skill levels of other size armor.

+ All crafting skills now have a 6 second minimum cooldown, 12 seconds max.

+ Backstab is no longer possible with fists or impact weapons, it is now modified by primary weapon range.

+ Fixed Bard level 30 quest. It's now added to NPC.

+ Boosted levels and difficulty mods for the monster trainers.

+ Changed Guard Hauthar to no longer be killed on sight to Monsters and Monster players.

+ Changed Herdmaster's drop frequency of Heardmaster's Heart to always.

+ Changed ingredients on a couple high end poison recipes (too many were using darkling guts).

+ Changed many list loops to iterator loops.

+ Changed Ranger epic so Lady Galeel checks for Light of Forgiveness and doesn't take it.

+ Corrected impact of weapon range on hit range.

+ Crafted rapiers had the same recipe as short swords, changed rapier recipes to use 2 leather straps.

+ Decreased the negative health regen on the Walking Bones spell.

+ Fixed a bug with item descriptions getting 'lost'.

+ Fixed a bug with items going missing when trading items of identical type.

+ Fixed a few necro spell drops. Annulment and Unholy Cancellation drop more frequently and Suppression now drops off the Bone Blade Master.

+ Fixed begin and end message for shaman spell - Viciousness of the Wolf.

+ Fixed pet equipment calculating penalty with wrong level value.

+ Fixed proc range on the Arrows Alaashiim.

+ Fixed some sheet recipes missing the word Ore for ingredient item.

+ Fixed stats on monk's Temperance, it may now be equipped/unequipped properly.

+ Fixed typo in Gutspiller Bracer.

+ Fixed typo preventing Adamantium Golem from spawning in Jakreth Jungle.

+ Fixed typos in secondary and tertiary class for Shubbenar, Fire Drake, Ancient Fire Drake, and Himmorlian Chask.

+ Fixed typos on FoF Chi Buff and Xal monk set power.

+ Fixed various skill/melee/spell range calculations.

+ Fixed Wyvern Arrow proc, cast range now equals arrow range.

+ Fixing enchanting of weapons with 100% penalty.

+ Flagged Shubben Garoul to be a unique spawn as intended.

+ Gave Leggings of Accomplishment the Artifact flag so it can be disenchanted too.

+ Increased cast time for shaman spells - Ferocity, Viciousness of the Wolf to 8 seconds (was 2).

+ Increased duration on Revealer Illusion spells (to 20 minutes).

+ Increased MaxStack on demon fangs to 50.

+ Increased spawn frequency of Perdurium Golem, Pharoah Tarkus.

+ Level 1 Necromancers now receive all their level 1 spells when they start.

+ Made a dialog update to the main MoD quest.

+ Made Nainn and Forli Greystone more friendly towards Monster Realm players.

+ Moved all NPC/Pet dialogs from chat to game window.

+ Pick pocketing now defaults to money if thief's inventory is full, halved pick pocket delay.

+ Powerless disenchanted items no longer show up in vendor lists.

+ Rearranged Chieftain Larn journal entry to make more sense.

+ Removed the power wield advancements from DK's list, since they do not receive this skill.

+ All crafting skills now have a 2 second cooldown period

+ Fixed issues with the Bard Epic Quest

+ Fixed error with veggie medley recipe

+ Meat Vendor was missing from desert (was listed as seafood vendor)

+ Increased max stack to 100 on consumables for cook/brew

+ Thorvald Faran is now a stationary spawn.

+ Made several item and dialog updates to Cook/Brew quests (MoD and FoL).

+ Fixed Sharif Izelbin's realm flag so MoDs can complete quest.

+ Cooking/Brewing quest items are all flagged as soulbound.

+ Pick pocketing now only fails due to aggro if target isn't asleep or stunned.

+ Sleeping pick pocket targets now wake up on pick pocket success and failure.

+ Pick pocketing mobs which carry specially flagged items no longer yields in a double pick pocket.

+ Sleeping or stunned mobs are easier to pick pocket.

+ A mobs difficulty mod now directly affects chances to pick pocket it.

+ Added a pick pocket timer which starts on a pick pocket attempt. The timer does not directly prevent a successful pick pocket, but modifies the difficulty by its value which goes down with time. A higher level thief can pick pocket again earlier than a lower level, relative to mob level.

+ Increased pick pocket skillup chances, which only apply if a certain difficulty to pick pocket is given.

+ Advancement descriptions should no longer cover up the choose button due to inherited exclusions, inherited exclusions get no longer displayed.

+ Skill information pane can again be used properly.

+ Text output that a crafting skill can't be currently reused works again.

+ Upgraded to Python 2.5